The Internet is a well-known collection of networks (e.g., public and private communications networks) that work together using common protocols to form a world wide network of networks. In recent years, the availability of more efficient, reliable and cost-effective computers and networking tools has allowed many companies and individuals (collectively, "users") to become involved in an ever growing electronic marketplace. The immeasurable gains in technology experienced by the computer industry overall have allowed these users to rely on commercially available computers, such as personal computers ("PCs"), to meet their information processing and communications needs. To that end, PC manufacturers equip most PCs with interfaces for communication over networks, such as the Internet.
The Internet continues to increase its position as an integral place for businesses that offers information and services to potential customers. One of the main funding sources for many of these businesses is advertising over the Internet (popular examples of such advertising include news providers, car dealerships, software providers, book stores, etc.). Many existing Internet home pages have one or more regions allocated to advertising, and in the future the volume of this advertising will increase--not only on home pages, but also on Internet browsers, as it is likely that Internet browsers such as NETSCAPE.RTM. will allocate one or more regions to advertising.
Typically, the region provided by an Internet advertising provider is not a simple, static billboard. Current Internet technology makes possible continuous, dynamic updates to the contents of advertising regions. An important motivation for this is that providers with a high volume of users may charge higher prices for advertising region, and parcel the space between different advertisements thereby making the advertising region accessible to a larger number of advertisers. Such parceling can be accomplished by selling an advertising region that is smaller than the total area available, by displaying different advertisements to different users, by dynamically changing the advertisements seen by a given user, or by some combination of two or more of the same.
What is needed in the art is a system and method for efficiently scheduling the display of advertisements in a communications network, such as the Internet.